e said, smiling down at her; "but you
haven't answered mine."

"I must beg leave to point out," she smiled, in return, "that you
haven't asked me one. You've only stated a fact--or what I presume to be
a fact. But before we can discuss it I ought to be possessed of certain
information; and you've put me in a position where I have a right to
demand it."

After brief reflection Derek admitted that. As nearly as he could recall
the incident at Mrs. Bayford's dinner-party, he recounted it.

"You see," he explained, in summing up, "that, as a snobbish person, she
could hardly be expected to forgive you for forgetting her, when she had
been introduced to you four times in a season. She not unnaturally
fancied you forgot her on purpose, so to speak--"

"I suppose I did," she murmured, penitently.

"What?" he asked, with sudden curiosity. "Would you--"

"I wouldn't now. I used to then. Everybody did it, when people were
introduced to us whom we didn't want to know. I've done it when it
wasn't necessary even from that point of view--out of a kind of sport, a
kind of wantonness. I've really forgotten about Mrs. Bayford now--
everything except her face--but I dare say I remembered perfectly well,
at the time. It would have been nothing unusual if I had."

"In that case," he said, slowly, "you can't be surprised--"

"I'm not," she hastened to say. "If Mrs. Bayford retaliates, now that
she has the power, she's within her right--a right which scarcely any
woman would forego. It was perfectly natural for Mrs. Bayford to speak
ill of me; and it was equally natural for you to spring to my defence.
You'd have sprung to the defence of any one--"

"No, no," he interjected, hurriedly.

"Of any one whom you--respected, as I hope you respect me. You've
offered me," she went on, her eyes filling with sudden tears--"you've
offered me the utmost protection a man can give a woman. To tell you how
deeply I'm touched, how sincerely I'm grateful, is beyond my power; but
you must see that I can't avail myself of your kindness. Your very
willingness to repeat at leisure what you said in haste makes it the
more necessary that I shouldn't take advantage of your chivalry."

"Would that be your only reason for hesitating to become my wife?"

The deep, vibrant note that came into his voice sent a tremor through
her frame, and she looked about her for support. He himself offered it
by taking both her hands in his. She allowed him to hold them f